Mindfulness-based stress reduction teachers, practice characteristics, cancer incidence, and health: a nationwide ecological description

Table 2 Pearson correlation coefficients between state-level meditation characteristics and state-level health rankings (N = 50)

	Number of certified MBSR teachers*		Hours teaching MBSR*		Years teaching MBSR*		Years of general meditation practice*
Age-adjusted cancer incidence rate*	ρ	p-value	ρ	p-value	ρ	p-value	ρ	p-value
Colorectal	−0.391	0.01	−0.312	0.03	−0.468	0.001	−0.406	0.004
Female breast	0.601	<0.0001	0.463	0.001	0.523	0.0001	0.616	<0.0001
Prostate	0.153	0.29	0.161	0.27	0.104	0.48	0.124	0.40
Lung & bronchus	−0.204	0.16	−0.163	0.26	−0.296	0.04	−0.216	0.14
Melanoma	0.178	0.22	0.209	0.15	0.282	0.05	0.217	0.13
Liver	0.269	0.06	0.222	0.13	0.273	0.06	0.218	0.13
NHL	0.212	0.14	0.264	0.07	0.213	0.14	0.255	0.08
HL	0.580	<0.0001	0.422	0.003	0.478	0.001	0.528	<0.0001
Cervical	−0.417	0.003	−0.264	0.07	−0.495	0.0003	−0.492	0.0003
*Health ranking data*	ρ	p-value	ρ	p-value	ρ	p-value	ρ	p-value
Overall health	−0.576	<0.0001	−0.460	0.001	−0.632	<0.0001	−0.617	<0.001
Mental health	−0.105	0.48	−0.183	0.21	−0.167	0.26	−0.152	0.30

MBSR: Mindfulness-Based Stressed Reduction; NHL: non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma; HL: Hodgkin’s lymphoma.
*Age-adjusted and per 100,000 population. Cancer data source: National Program of Cancer Registries: Incidence, WONDER online database. United States Department of Health and Human Services, Center for Disease Control and Prevention and National Cancer Institute: 2014.
N: Number of states (out of 51) included in analysis.
ρ: Two-tailed Pearson correlation coefficient.
Note: Cancer incidence data for 49 states and the District of Columbia were included; data for Nevada were unavailable because the cancer registry did not meet publication criteria for the years under consideration and was excluded from all analyses.

ISSN: 2662-7671